TRS 2017 - Round 02 - Teretonga, Invercargill
Heading to the Southern Circuit of the World close to Invercargill for the Toyota Racing Series Round 02. As expected from the circuit location, the weather would be changing and being a challenge for the 20 drivers to adapt to those conditions - from dry and hot to cold, windy and rainy weather.
5 Free Practices - as usual - were done on thursday and friday to give the opportunity to the drivers to maximise their knowledge of the 5 corners - 2.6 kms circuit. Despite being short, it is a quite technical circuit which requires precision and regularity to be able to perform and fight for the pole position as like every year the times will be tight and every thousand will count to make a position - usually the whole field is within a second.
At this game, the Australian Thomas Randle and the local Kiwi Brendon Leitch signed the pole positions for Q1 & Q2 ending up an incredible serie of 18 consecutive poles from M2 Competition....
In Q1, Pedro lead the M2 squad, qualifying P4 in front of Ferdinand (P5), Jehan (P6) and Marcus (P7). Missing completely Q1, Kami didn't convert the potential he showed during the Free Practices and only qualified P17 in front of his team mate Jean Baptiste (P20) who is keeping improving his pace.
in Q2, it was Jehan leading the M2 squad in P3 sharing the 2nd row with his team mate Ferdinand (P4), Pedro (P7), Marcus (P8) and Kami (P9) made it in the top 10 which was a hard battle as the top 10 was within 0,27 sec ! Jean Baptiste made another step forward qualifying his M2 car in P18.
Race 1 was the only one to be on dry conditions for the week-end and show the first win of the Young Red Bull Driver Richard Verschoor after the Australian driver, Thomas Randle, who had the control of the race from the start to the chequered flag had been penalised of 10 sec for being judged having jumped the start. Pedro made it to the last step of the podium, P3 in front of his team mate Ferdinand (P4). Jehan finished P9 after receiving a 10sec penalty for jump start, in front of Marcus (P11). Great race from Kami who recovered from P17 to P12 being one of the only drivers to overtake during the race. Jean Baptiste gained one position, finishing P19.
Weather got worse on saturday evening and showers during the night and in the morning gave the drivers a wet track for Race 2 but as it stopped raining at the beginning of the race, the track was starting to dry during the race giving some tricky conditions for the drivers and head aches to the engineers to choose the optimum tyre pressures. Top 4 was drawn on the day before offering a first row for the M2 Drivers : Ferdinand on pole with at his side Pedro Piquet. Pedro made the best of a start to take the lead while a three cars crash on the main straight, involving the poleman Ferdinand made the race direction displayed the red flag. Brilliant start from Kami who moved from P12 to P6 and kept that position up to the chequered flag. His team mate Marcus as well made some good moves at the start and was able to move from P11 to P4. Jehan finished P5 and Jean Baptiste recorded his best finish ending up P15.
The weather didn't improved for Race 3 and it was on a fully wet and rainy track that the drivers took the start of the Spirit of a Nation Cup. M2 drivers had a brilliant race, putting 4 drivers in the top 6 with Jehan (P2), Marcus (P4), Pedro (P5) and Kami (P6) but nothing they could do again the flying Dutch, Verschoor, who scored his second win of the week-end. An eventless race for Jean Baptiste who finished P16 which was the opposite of Ferdinand who finished P18 after having to go off track in the early stage of the race.
At the end of Round 2, Verschoor increased his lead of the Series in front of Thomas Randle and the M2 Drivers are still on their tail, Pedro (P3) leading the squad in front of Jehan (P4) and Marcus (P5). Kami moved up to P8 in front of Ferdinand (P10). Some more experienced gained for Jean Baptiste in P20. M2 Competition increased his lead in the Team Championship.
Now the teams are moving up to the North Island for the next Round in Hampton Downs, close to Auckland.
All pictures by Bruce Jenkins.
